1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control apparatus and printing apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a suitable technology used for confirming and printing an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current printers have a card slot which can be inserted with a recording medium on which digital image data (hereinafter, “image data”) captured by a digital camera and the like is recorded. There are also printers which can print by themselves images relating to image data recorded on a recording medium, without the printer being connected to a personal computer (PC).
Such printers typically can display an image and a print menu on a dedicated liquid crystal monitor provided on the printer, and can perform various settings and print processing by an operation panel based on that display. However, printer-dedicated liquid crystal monitors are small, which can make it difficult for a user to view the image. Consequently, there has been a proposal which attempts to improve convenience by displaying the image and print menu on an external monitor connected to the printer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-139386).
While a PC monitor may be used as the external monitor, a digital television (hereinafter, “television”) can also be used. Some current televisions have a card slot into which a recording medium can be inserted, so that images relating to image data recorded on the recording medium can be viewed on a large screen in high-definition. Further, with a printer connected to such a television, the image can be printed by an operation on the television.
Therefore, by connecting the television and the printer, the user can send print data to the printer while viewing the image on the television, and can view the printing situation in the printer on the television. An example of a method for connecting these devices for the former case is Universal Serial Bus (USB), and for the latter case High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). Thus, considering that these devices will be wirelessly connected by the above-described communication methods, it is desirable to mount only a single wireless communication unit so that the mounting surface area of the hardware for each of the devices is as small as possible.
Therefore, when the user sends print data to the printer while viewing the television image, or when the user views the printing situation in the printer on the television, the communicating devices can be connected by two connection methods (USB or HDMI). However, it is troublesome for the user to manually select between these two connection methods depending on the intended use.